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PATBNTED MAY 10, 1904. H. B. WILLIAMS.

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APPLICATION FILED APR. 22. 1903.

N0 MODEL.

lNVENTORi WITNESSES:

UNITED STATES Patented May 10, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY B. WILLIAMS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN CAN COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEWV JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 759,578, dated May 10, 1904.

Application filed April 22, 1908. Serial No. 153,807. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY B. WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, city and State New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention aims to provide certain improvements especially applicable in boxes of the kind usually used for carrying matches, small confections, or the like. Such boxes are ordinarily made of sheet metal, with the body of the box and the cover formed of separate pieces and hinged together. The making of these parts with proper flanges for the hinge-pin requires a number of separate operations which have to be very accurately made in order to make sure that the covers and bodies will fit together when they come to be assembled, and the reassembling also is a work of considerable time. According to my invention I propose to eliminate the cost of most of the operations described.

My invention provides several improvements in detail which may be availed of separately or in combination. An important feature of novelty is in substituting for the ordinary pin-hinge aportion of sheet metal or similar flexible material uniting the cover and the body. Preferably the entire box, including the hinge portion, the body, and the cover, is formed from a single sheet, and the cover may be adapted to latch down on the body of the box and to be opened by the spring of the metal constituting the hinge when the latch is released.

Various other features of invention are specified in detail hereinafter.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, illustrating certain embodiments of the invention, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a box adapted to be "opened or-closed. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the same closed. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the same sprung open. Fig. 4c is front view, and Fig. 5 a back view, of the same. Fig. 6 is a blank (on a smaller Fig.

7 is a side view, and Fig. 8 a cross-section, of another style of box embodying certain features of the invention. Fig. 9 is a face view of the box shown in Figs. 7 and 8 in the position of use.

Referring to the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5, the box comprises a body A and a cover B, connected to each other by means of a sheet-metal portion 1, constituting a hinge having a certain amount of spring, so that it tends normally to hold the cover partly open, as in Fig. 3. The sheet metal or similar material used is thin and flexible, so that after the box automatically opens to the position of Fig. 3 it may be further opened, if desired, the portion O being easily bent back for this purpose. 'It is desirable to maintain the hinge portion C in a curved form of considerable radius, so that it shall not be weakened and finally broken by repeated opening and closing of the box and so as also to better main tain its spring-like action. This is done in the case illustrated by turning up sides D of the body of the box and rounding the rear ends of said sides, as indicated at E, and arranging them within the hinge portion C, so that the latter overlies the rounded ends E, and thus maintains its curved shape when closed. out still more. A latch is provided which is also, preferably, an integral part of the sheet from which the box is formed. This latch preferably consists of a suitable hook-shaped portion on the cover cooperating with a protruding portion on the body of the box. As shown, the cover is provided. at its end with a hook-shaped portion F, forming a continuation of the top portion G of the cover, but separated from the side portions H thereof, so as to permit it to yield and spring over a protruding portion of the box. The latch member on the box may consist, as shown, of a protruding portion J, united or preferably formed in one With the bottom K of the box,

but separated from the sides I) thereof to permit it to yield inwardly a slight distance. When the box is closed, as in Fig. 2, the hook- Of course when opened it is spread shaped portion F of the cover overlies and engages the protruding portion J of the body of the box, and the latter is a slight distance out from the edge L of the side of the body, the front edge L of such sides being slightly cut away, as shown, to permit of the neces sary inward movement of the protruding portion J to release the hook F. Upon such release the spring of the hinge C automatically throws open the cover at least as far as the position shown in Fig. 3. Avery convenient arrangement is illustrated by Fig. 4, the cover being provided with two latch portions F at its front, with a thumb-piece M cut out between them and exposing the front or protruding portion of the box, so that by a pressure at this point the latch may be released to permit the cover to spring open. The most convenient mode of opening such boxes where they are of small size is to hold them between the thumb and finger and squeeze them together. For such smooth material as sheet metal, of which boxes will ordinarily be composed, and especially with such rounded front and back faces as are illustrated, the slipperiness of the material might make it awkward to open the box. For this I purpose I provide roughened portions on the front and back, such as the roughened portion N on the front within the thumb-space M, and aroughened line or the like O, Fig. 5, along the back. It will be noted that with the construction described a large space M.

may be provided in which the entire thumb of a person can lie, and the front of the box protrudes in such space, so that the roughened portion N is easily engaged and pressed inward. The cover is preferably provided with sides H, which lap over the outside of the sides D of the body, and preferably in order to prevent the sides of the cover from getting within the sides of the body the former are provided near the hinge with extending portions P, which overlap the sides D of the body and maintain the sides of the cover in proper position when the box is open, as shown in Fig. 3.

The shape of the blank from which the box of Fig. 1 is formed is shown in Fig. 6. This shape may be stamped out and the sides and latch :portions bent up very cheaply, after which one closing of the box latches it ready for shipment.

The invention is applicable not only to boxes of the type described. Figs. 7 8, and 9 show certain features of the invention applied in a box intended to remain closed during use and carrying matches or the like. In this construction the hinge portion C is the same as that previously described, as well as the bottom K and the sides D of the body and the top G and sides H of the cover. Preferably tongues Q, are provided at the edge of each side of the cover, which tongues either spring or are bent into suitable holes in the sides D of the body when the box is shut, and thus prevent opening of the box except by prying open the tongues Q. The body and the cover of the box are each provided with a lip or extension R, similar to the extending portions F and J of the box of Fig. 1 in that theyare united to or formed in one with the top of the cover and the bottom of the body, but are separated from the side portions, so that they may yield slightly. Preferably an accurate hinge-line about which the lips R may yield is provided by corrugations S between the lips R and the portions of the box to which they are connected. As illustrated in Fig. 9, each of the lips R is bifurcated by a thumb-space T. and when the box is held in the vertical position matches or the like within the box can be grasped at their middle portion and drawn out one by one between the spring portions R. Preferably the lips R are flared, as at U, to permit the reinsertion of the matches or similar articles, if desired, though I contemplate making the boxes so cheaply that they may be thrown'away after being once emptied of their contents, or they may be opened by prying up the tongues Q, as explained, and refilled quickly.

Though I have described with great particularity of detail certain embodiments of my invention, yet it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. Various modifications thereof in detail and in the arrangement and combination of the parts may be made by those skilled in the art without departure from the invention.

What I claim is 1. A box of sheet metal or the like having a bodyand a cover adapted to latch down on the body and adapted to spring open when the latch is released, said body and cover having a latch portion and a spring portion, the whole being formed from a single sheet.

2. A one-piece sheet-metal box, having a body portion with turned-up sides D D, an opening and closing spring-acting cover with turned-down sides H H overlapping said sides on the body, and an intermediate integral hinge portion C uniting said cover and body and operating both as a hinge to permit the cover to open and as a spring to throw the cover open when it is released, said cover and said body having at their fronts interengaging latch portions to hold the cover closed.

3. A box having a hinged cover and having sides on said cover adapted to close over the outside of the sides of the body, said sides of the cover being extended at their ends near the hinge to lap over the sides of the box when the cover is raised.

4. A one-piece box of sheet metal or the like having a body, a spring-opening cover and an integral rounded hinge portion uniting the body and cover, said cover provided at one end with a hook-shaped portion united with the top portion of the cover but separated from the side portions thereof so as to permit it to spring over a protruding portion of the box and latch the cover down.

5. A box of sheet metal or the like having a body, a spring-opening cover and an integral rounded hinge portion uniting the body and cover, said body having at one edge a protruding portion united with the bottom of the box but separated from the sides thereof to permit it to yield and be engaged by a hookshaped portion on a cover.

6. A one-piece box of sheet metal or the like having a body, a spring-opening cover and an integral rounded spring-hinge portion uniting the body and cover and having at the free edge of the body of the box a protruding portion and at the free edge of the cover a hookshaped portion adapted to engage the protruding portion of the body, said protruding portion and hook-shaped portion being connected to the bottom of the box and the top of the cover respectively and disconnected from the sides so that they may yield slightly and form a spring-latch.

7. A box having a cover and a spring-hinge, said cover having at its front latch portions with a thumb-space between them, and means whereby pressing upon the front of the box through said thumb-space releases said latch portions and causes the cover to spring open.

8. Aone-piece box of sheet metal or similar smooth material having a body, a spring-opening cover and an integral rounded springhinge portion uniting the body and cover, and said cover being adapted to be sprung open by pressing on the front of the body, and said box having roughened portions on its front and back to permit a good hold thereon.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HARRY B. WILLIAMS. WVitnesses:

DOMINGO A. USINA, GEORGE H FRASER. 

